History of Westchester County, New York
From Its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900
Volume 1
FREDERIC SHONNARD
W. W. SPOONER
History of Westchester County, Volume 1, Shonnard/Spooner
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ISBN: 9783849660017
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CONTENTS:
EDITOR'S PREFACE
THE preparatory work for this History was begun by the editor several years ago along the Hues of research and of the collection and systematizing of materials. The identification of Mr. Spooner with the enterprise dates from a later period, but in its relative importance is not to be estimated by its duration. To him the credit of the authorship of the History is undividedly due. The editor's personal share in the joint undertaking apart from the selection of the plan of the work and the procurement and arrangement of materials has been mostly that of supervision; or, more properly expressed, of such co-operation with Mr. Spooner as personal knowledge of the subject and zealous interest in the project have enabled him to render in the particulars specially of recommendation, contribution, and criticism. This History is therefore not a work of collaboration, except in the sense here precisely indicated. As a literary work it is the exclusive production of Mr. Spooner; and whatever satisfaction the editor may reasonably without an excess of complacency take to himself in view of his own association in the enterprise, rests in a peculiar manner upon his appreciation of the conscientious devotion and accomplished ability with which Mr. Spooner has brought it to its practical issue.
Although the previous histories of Westchester County, Bolton's and Scharf's, are works of great volume and information, they are works of reference strictly, and as such belong rather to the department of historical miscellany than to that of books adapted for popular reading. Bolton's History is a collection of local chronicles entirely; Scharf's is on the same plan, with a number of general articles added. Both represent historical labors of great formality and seriousness, which are entitled to respect and whose aggregate results possess enduring value for inquiring persons. But mere collections of historical facts even if comprehending all the elemental facts of a given subject do not afford a satisfying view of history itself. That can be done only by the adequate treatment of facts by the orderly, discreet, and able conjoining of them in a comprehensive narration. The twenty-five town histories of Westchester County, however exhaustively and excellently written, do not constitute a history of the county; and for a consecutive understanding of the general comity history the reader of Bolton or Scharf must rely upon his own constructive ingenuity must indeed be his own historian.
Long before the work now given to the public was conceived as a practical project, the present editor realized the force of these considerations and cherished not only a hope that a genuine narrative history of the county might someday be produced, but an ambition to become personally instrumental in achieving so important a result. His attention was especially directed to the matter by his observations during his connection with the schools, from which he became convinced of the extremely elementary character of the general knowledge of this county's history, even in relation to the Revolution, whereof, indeed, anything like a well-coordinated understanding is most exceptional among the people, and quite incapable of being taught to the young because of the unsuitability for that purpose of all books heretofore published that bear on the subject.
In formulating the plan for the present work the editor had fundamentally in view a lucid continuous narrative, thorough in its treatment of the outlines of the subject and reasonably attentive to local details without extending to minuteness. These lines have been followed throughout. All existing materials, so far as accessible, have been utilized, proper credit being given to the sources from which borrowings have been made. The work comprehends a variety of new materials, which have been interwoven in the text. Portions of the manuscript have been revised or criticized by persons particularly well informed on certain phases of the subject; and to all of these critics the editor extends his thankful acknowledgments.
Special credit is due to Mr. -lames L. Wells for his editorial supervision of the entire work so far as concerns the sections of the original county now constituting the Borough of the Bronx, New York City; and thanks must also be expressed to Mr. Wells for the crest of Jonas Bronck (the first settler of Westchester County), introduced by his kind permission in the title-page. It is probably not generally known that from the Bronck crest have been derived some of tin; essential features of the arms of the State of New York.
" Shonnard Homestead,"
August, 1900.
CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY
THE County of Westchester, as a definitely bounded and organized political unit, was created on the 1st of November, 1683, by the provisions of an act of the first Provincial Assembly of New York, held under the administration of the Royal Governor Dongan, which formally marked off the province into the twelve original counties. By the terms of this act, Westchester County was to comprise " East and Westchester, Bronxland, Fordham, and all as far eastward as the province extends," and to run northward along the Hudson River to the Highlands, its southern limits being, of course, Long Island Sound and the waters between the mainland and Manhattan Island or New York County. Of the boundaries thus described, only the western and northern have continued unchanged to the present time. The precise location of the eastern line, constituting the boundary between New York and Connecticut, was a matter of serious contention throughout the early history of the county, and, indeed, was not established to the final satisfaction of both parties to the dispute until 1880. This long-standing and curious controversy as to the eastern boundary involved, however, nothing more than rival claims of colonial jurisdiction, arising from mathematical inaccuracies in original calculations of distance, and from peculiar conditions of early settlement along the Sound, which presented a mere problem of territorial rectification upon the basis of reciprocal concessions by the two provinces and subsequently the two commonwealths concerned; and. accordingly, while leaving a portion of the eastern border line of Westchester County somewhat indeterminable for two centuries, the issues at stake never affected the integrity of its aggregate area as allotted at the beginning. On the other hand, the southern boundary of the old county has undergone extremely radical modifications,' which are still in progress. Since 1873, by various legislative acts, large sections of it have been cut away and transferred to the City of New York, comprising what until recent years were known as the " annexed districts " of the metropolis, now officially styled the "Borough of the Bronx" of the Greater City. Although the county still retains its two most populous municipalities, Yonkers and .Mount Vernon, the New York City line has been pushed right up to their borders, and there is no reasonable doubt that within a few more years they, too, will be absorbed. Already forty-one and one half square miles, or 26,500 acres, have been annexed to the city.
